They are like birds landing briefly atop a hill, watchful, ready to take off at the slightest sign of danger. Their harmony was created by long-dead architects with exact precision, for every such structure does not a have a single nail or touch of glue. Everything is wood.
This architectural phenomenon has been studied for almost a century, assuming that Our Treasures written by Transcarpathian researcher Uryil Meteor (pen name of Ivan Silvai, a noted educator) and published in Uzhhorod in 1901 marks its beginning. However, the most noteworthy study of that period is a photo album compiled by Bogumil Vavruska (Prague, 1929), made up of 272 illustrations showing structures living a life of their own, in full agreement with the environment. The first pictures of churches were taken in 1919-25 by another Czech researcher, Florian Zapletal, destined to be public only in 1982.
FACETS OF A LIVING MIRACLE
Church architecture took shape in Zakarpattia over centuries, rooted in Kyiv Rus' and old Ukrainian cultures. Several dozen wooden temples have survived to our day, although in the mid eighteenth century there were some 800: 84 in the Uzh komitat (an administrative-territorial unit at the period); 100 in the Bereza one; 118 in the Maramorsky komitat, et al . In the nineteenth century, it was decided to build churches using more durable materials, and the number of wooden structures registered a sharp decline. Many few were dismantled and replaced by stone buildings. In 1843, Bereza komitat had 100 wood churches, as previously, but only 40 remained intact by the beginning of this century, while 90 stone churches had been erected.
Under the Soviets, churches were torn down in the villages of Ruske Pole, Pidplesha, and Hanychi in Tiachiv district as well as in Slaviansk and Roztoky in Rakhiv district; temples burned down in Soimy, Maidan Mizhgirsky, and Ruska Mokra (Tiachiv district). Dozens of small structures of lesser architectural value were demolished.
The Boiko architectural school with its trident-like, three-section, three-story churches belongs to the first group. Their design testifies to the Old Rus' tradition, each consisting of three square log structures axially stretching east-westward. The central structure is larger than the ones on the sides — the altar to the east and babynets (a section traditionally reserved for women) to the west. The central building was where the men prayed, while the women did so in the babynets , for then they were not allowed to pray side by side with men and had to form a crowd by the entrance ( babynets comes from baba , meaning a village housewife, but extending to rural female adherents in general).
The most prominent feature of Boiko churches is the multiple horizontal compartmentalization of all three stories. Originally, the central structure was always taller than the ones on the sides, but later designs made it level with them. Still later projects, influenced by Western architecture, had the bell tower raised higher than the. Monuments of Boiko architecture are still found in Verkhne Mizhhirske (1804), Husne (1655), Sukhe (1769), Vyshka (late eighteenth century), and Uzh (1745), Velyky Berzny district. Some Boiko churches were renovated, not always for the better.
The second group is composed of the Lemko school churches that began to spread in the mid-eighteen century. They are also three-section, yet the roofing of the log structures is no longer balanced, the whole composition tending to be more dynamic by increasing the height east-westward. One of the reasons of this transformation was Rome's insistent attempts to Latinize the Eastern rite, if only externally. Thus Lemko churches' basic exterior feature was the loss of centrality caused by transferring the vertical dominant from the central log structure to the belfry towering over the babynets , attached to it or erected nearby.
Regrettably, none of the surviving Lemko churches is in its original location; three were transferred to what was then Czechoslovakia in the 1920s-1930s and the 1792 Shelestiv church to Kyiv's Museum of Folk Architecture and Everyday Life. On the other hand, this may have spared them some of the cataclysms of our age.
The third group is made up of so- called home-type churches, based on a square log structure uniting the central part and babynets , and a square (narrower or angular) log building accommodating the altar. All these components have tall roofs resembling traditional village homes in Western Ukraine. The architecture and dimensions are characteristic of Old Rus' churches of this type dating from the late twelfth century in the principalities of Chernihiv and Halych. The oldest surviving ones are found in the villages of Kolodne and Dibrova (Tiachiv district), Seredne Vodiane (Rakhiv), Oleksandrivka, Sokyrnytsia, and Krainykove (Khust), and Ivashkovtsia (Irshava).
Finally, a group of temples represented by cross-shaped, single- story, and at times three- and five- story Hutsul churches, based on an isosceles cross with the east-westward row of structures complemented north-south with two side atriums. The best samples are still in Strukove (1824) and Plyntovativ (1780) transferred from Yasinia, a village in Rakhiv district.
EARTHLY FIRE OVER CHURCHES
Not heavenly but earthly fire is cast upon all these houses of God. Over the past several years fire has destroyed the church in the village of Lubnia (Velyky Berezny district), the famous Gothic temple in Steblivka (Khust), and someone set fire to the precious architectural monument in Kobyletska Poliana (Rakhiv). Wooden churches have been demolished, for various subjective reasons, at Vodytsia, Kostylivka, and Vilkhovate (Rakhiv).
The fire brigade in Volovets received a call at 2:21 p.m. on May 24, 1999 about a fire at the 1880 Greek Catholic church in the village of Nyzhnia Roztoka. The old wooden structure caught fire instantly and there were no routes of approach using motor vehicles as the adherents used footpaths to reach the church atop a hill. The firemen had to run hoses all the way to a stream at the foot of the hill and then pump the water uphill. Even then they could not save the structure, except for the altar and belfry. The fire was caused by a short circuit in old electrical wiring. The same happened on May 2 to an Orthodox church in Ruska Dolyna (Vynohradiv district) while service was in progress. The structure was originally built in Bukovyna in the fourteenth century and transferred to Zakarpattia by rafts in 1922. It was consecrated on Candlemas and named after the holy day. In March 1994 outdated wiring also burned down a wooden church in Pushkinove in the same district.
ALL THIS IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF OUR SHORT MEMORY AND NEGLECT
Lack of taste in latter-day religious restoration projects is probably as destructive as fire. Wooden churches are often roofed with tin and they instantly remind one of warehouses. This is especially evident at the village of Sukhy (Velyky Berezny district) where St. John's Church is now under a black plate roof, with horizontal boards nailed to the walls (as in an early nineteenth century railroad car). The antique ornamented door frame was «modernized,» and a new door installed, making the whole thing look like a modern kitchen doorway.
Unless we do something about preserving old wooden churches in Transcarpathia immediately they will inevitably perish in the vulgarity of the market, and it will be anyone's guess what kind of churches our children will have to attend.
№34 September 14 1999 «The
Day»
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№34, (1999)Section
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